6 — Friday, February 14, 1997 — North Shore News ‘north shore The Herth Shere ews ts publishod by Hath Store Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck, from 1239 Leesdete Avenue Werth ¥eacouver, 8.C., ¥79l 204 SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (701) 61,502 (average carcutation, Wednesday. Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press itd. All rights reserved, Deadly decisions GAIN we have death on the mountain. Every year skiers and snowboard- ers choose to go beyond the patrolled safety boundaries of iocal ski areas. Some are lucky and pay for their folly by the discomfort of hav- ing to be rescued. Others pay with their lives. Three snowboarders dead in less than two weeks. Two went out of bounds at Cypress. Another on Grouse, who lost contro] on a run according to one witness, knocked to injury sustained by his brain. Three having some fun. Three secking “big air” and uncut snowy expanses. Three young people gone all too soon. Think about the hard truth of that number and its conse- quences. Three families left to grieve and wonder. Many search and rescue volunteers risking their lives to save others. Many ski patrollers unable to look out for the safety of those who choose to play it safer by staying within ski area bounds. The call arises again for someone to “do something.” Fine the miscre- ants. Make them pay for the true cost of search and rescuc. Ban them from ever returning to the moun- tain. Educate all skiers and snow- boarders, especially the young who are the inherent risk takers, about the subtle dangers waiting just around the corner for those who push the envelope. We can’t let matters stand. Rescuers and mountain staff are burning out emotionally and physi- cally every time this kind of tragedy happens. We can’t legislate common sense, but we can provide the inputs to fos- ter safe winter fun. his head and subsequently died due GLEN CLARK DOES His IMPRESSION OF THE AVERAGE BRITISH COLUMBIAN: ST C East-end whiners are all wet They bristle at anything perceived to be a threat to their turf. Including their political turf. » .: They've just won yet . : another “victory” in fend- . ing off the Vancouver . Molson Indy race and its jobs and injection of busi- “ness income. Too proud, they are, to be bought off. Of course many such -- leaders — defenders of the poor -— aren’t at ail poor themselves. I'd wager that a lot have middie-class incomes and jobs, including in government or through grants for community services. Many have New Democratic Party ties. The Downtown Eastside Residents Association was formed about a quarter of a century ago with little more than a hard core of activists who were loudmouths and always good copy for sympathetic reporters. Its member- ship numbers were grossly inflate:d. If DERA had had the call, it’s doubtful that Expo 86 — a huge Vancouver success story — would have been held. DERA complained bitterly that Expo was pushing people out of the very kinds of hotels that it had long castigated as fleabags unfit for human habitation. Several Committee of Progressive Electors (COPE) councillors, DERA’s close allies, loudly announced they wouldn’t attend Expo. Too bad. They missed a great celebration stunningly created by the world’s nations. DERA has lately split into warring and litigious camps. - For years cast-end Vancouver’s well-organized leftist political core fought to evict the Pacific National Exhibition and got even conservative city councillors on side. Ic made great sense to have horse racing, Canucks hockey, B.C. Lions football (albeit at the poorly designed Empire Stadium), Playland etc. on one well-situated site convenient both to scores of thousands of city dwellers on foot or by transit, and to the high-growth suburbs. It THAT ENCE NDS PRE Tp RIDING E was actually useful, functioning, a genuine community asset. : But the perennial east-end whiners and complainers triumphed. Officially at city hall and in Victoria, it was treated like the bubonic plague. Vancouver's latte-sipping New Sophisticates scorned it. Far more adored it; annu- al attendance is a million. But the PNE is out. It must find a new home in 1998, . ; Professional football and hockey, and now basket- ball, have moved downtown, benefiting the city’s core and taking business and jobs (and raany a household’s undeclared income from parking) from the PNE area. At a numbing cost of $41 million over the next 20-odd years, the PNE site will revert to being Hastings Park. And E predict that a park of that size and with such excellent highway links will be a magnet for all kinds of trouble. Drugs. Youth gangs. Sexual assaults. It will be Vancouver's version of New York City’s Centra! Park. That’s what the east-end “community lead- ers” will have created. : . ee 8 Following last week’s column questioning the wis- dom (considering the cost) of extraditing Eric Valois from Britain, West Van Mayor Pat Bename has faxed me without comment a memo she received from Chief Constable Grant Churchill: “Eric Valois escaped from the custody of the sheriff's department while making an appearance in the provincial court in West Vancouver in 1986.... “The West Vancouver Police does not hold decision- making authority to apply for extradition of Valois; nei- ther docs West Vancouver have any responsibility for any associated expenses. Decision-making and expenses are the responsibility of regional Crown.” My column didn’t say West Van taxpayers would foot the bill exclusively. Clearly all B.C. taxpayers kick in, since the administration of justice is under provincial jurisdiction. But Chief Churchill’s memo clarifies that poine for those who may nor understand the system and therefore is a useful footmote. — The North Shore News believes strongly in freedom of Speech and the right of all sides in a debate to be heard. The columnists published in the News present differing points of vicw, but those views are not necessarily those of the newspaper itself: rreamibex Dear Editor: Pos I was interested to see, in Ian Noble’s informative Jan. 31. article on the imminent ski area éxpansion in Cypress Provincial :-Park,’. this cryptic quote from “an outraged Wayne Booth: “Forty :million does not go a long way. To say there ‘will be a Whistler here. is mi public, is scaring the public: completely irresponsible.” As one of the op ara -_. development noted by Mr. Booth'as. having, apparently, labelec posal a “mini-Whistler?’| your. readers’. attention: to: ment on this subject as: reporte an article headed “Cypress ski: development crossroads Vancouver : Conrier, 01 1992 mae -« “The intent here is Advertisement disturbs reade . Dear Editor: 7 Boy, was Wednesday, Feb.-5,°a very confusing day for me and my wife! . Like any other weekday, we came - home from work to our house in Deep Cove. When we arrived at our door step, there was this newspaper on our mat, shaped a lot like the North Shore News, lying with its back page facing up. Pve lived on the North Shore for 28 years and my wife 13 years, but at that moment, sceing that advertisement on the back page, we felt lost. In fact, for a split second, we could have sworn we were in Surrey! Grant Graber, North Vancouver ggraber@hasimons.com